Table 1.

Primary story themes of articles on mental illness by year with Mantel-Haenszel chi-squared test for trend.

	Year
	1992 (n = 321)		2000 (n = 433)		2008 (n = 607)		Trend
Primary story theme	%	n	%	n	%	n	χ2 (d.f. = 1)	P
Bad news	59	188	44	190	37	222	39.606	< 0.001
Danger to others	21	66	23	101	14	87	7.950	0.005
Suicide and self-injury	16	50	5	23	8	48	10.692	0.001
Victimization and severe mistreatment	13	41	4	16	2	11	47.580	< 0.001
Strange, inept, or burdensome	10	31	12	50	13	76	1.627	0.202
Good news
Understanding mental illness	26	85	45	197	50	301	41.096	< 0.001
Explaining: causes, treatments, prevalence, and symptoms	13	42	29	125	30	182	26.833	< 0.001
Biological	4	13	10	44	7	40	0.761	0.383
Psychosocial	6	20	17	73	19	113	22.151	< 0.001
Not specified	3	9	2	8	5	29	3.765	0.052
Individuals and groups affected by mental illness	13	43	17	72	20	119	5.820	0.016
Services and advocacy	15	48	11	46	14	84	.020	0.888
Mental health service inadequacies and improvements	11	34	8	36	10	61	0.004	0.952
Stigma, discrimination, and public education	4	14	2	10	4	23	0.027	0.871